Once in a Blue Moon

Summary

Abraham Kasir has properties scattered across Birmingham, but the ones on Cullom Street hold a special place in his heart. So does his newest tenant, Landon Cooper, a transplant from one of the city’s ritzier suburbs. Landon’s a psychologist managing her own mental illness in the face of divorce and downsizing. Her upstairs neighbor, Abi, is a country girl trying to shake her rural roots even as her father’s illness pulls her back home. Across the street, Jet is a former prostitute reeling from an uncovered truth about her birth mother. Jet has a crush on her neighbor Sam, a weed dealer paying his way through college and wrestling with his dreams for the future. Mr. Kasir acts not just as a landlord but as a father figure to each of them—and most of all to his grandson, Jason. Fresh out of high school, Jason is trying to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps while his own father struggles with drug addiction.
These are the voices in Once in a Blue Moon, Vicki Covington’s new novel set during Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign. Change is in the air as readers follow this community through one transformative year. In league with other great Southern novelists including Anne Tyler and Fannie Flagg, Covington writes with tenderness and humor while asking important questions about family, faith, race, class, and—ultimately—hope.
Vicki Covington was born and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Her previous work includes the novels Gathering Home, Bird of Paradise, Night Ride Home, and The Last Hotel for Women and the memoir Cleaving: The Story of a Marriage with Dennis Covington. She wrote a column for Oxford American and has also written for The New Yorker. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Alabama State Council for the Arts, she now resides in Lubbock, Texas.
“It’s wonderful to have a new Vicki Covington novel to recommend. Once in a Blue Moon tells the story of a little community of lost souls who find each other in a season when hope and change seemed like real possibilities. This is a lovely book, full of delight and real feeling. I can’t think of another quite like it.”—Mark Childress, author of Crazy in Alabama and Georgia Bottoms

Other books that might interest you

Louise's Crossing

Sarah R. Shaber

0

1

0

Government girl Louise Pearlie is thrilled to be posted to London, but her journey across the Atlantic proves to be anything but plain sailing…
February, 1944. Washington D.C. With the war entering its most dangerous phase, Louise Pearlie is thrilled to be reassigned to the London office of the OSS. But in order to take up her new post, she must make a perilous crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in the SS Amelia Earhart.
Accompanying her on the voyage to Liverpool are an eclectic group of passengers, including the aloof Blanche Bryant, whose husband, Eddie, died in mysterious circumstances on the ship’s voyage out to New York three months before. Most of the same crew and passengers are on the return voyage, and one question remains: was it really suicide?
When the body of one of the passengers is found on deck, it’s clear that German bombs and raging storms aren’t the only threats to Louise’s safety. Can she expose a brutal killer before the ship docks in England?

Dead to Rights

J. A. Jance

0

2

0

A woman is cruelly cut down in a remote corner of Arizona, killed on her nineteenth wedding anniversary by a drunk motorist.? A year later, the driver himself dies badly, and all suspicions point to the slain woman's still-grieving husband as his murderer. But the truth is rarely black and white in the long Southwestern shadows, and one law officer is not rushing to condemn the tragic widower so quickly: Joanna Brady, Sheriff of Cochise County. Brady's convictions, however, are leading her on a twisted trail through inhospitable country—and setting her on a path that will bring her face-to-face with cold, calculating death in the high, lonely desert.

Devil's Fjord

David Hewson

0

1

0

New District Sheriff Tristan Haraldsen uncovers a series of dark secrets when he investigates the disappearance of two boys in the remote Faroe Islands.
Newly-appointed District Sheriff Tristan Haraldsen and his wife Elsebeth are looking forward to a peaceful semi-retirement in the remote fishing village of Djevulsfjord on the stunningly beautiful island of Vagar. But when two boys go missing during the first whale hunt of the season, the repercussions strike at the heart of the isolated coastal community.
As he pursues his investigations, Tristan discovers that the Mikkelsen brothers aren’t the first young men to have vanished on Vagar. Determined to solve the mystery of Djevulsfjord, yet encountering suspicion wherever he turns, Haraldsen comes to realize he and his wife are not living in the rural paradise they had imagined, and that the wild beauty of the region hides a far darker reality.

Keep The Midnight Out - A DCI...

Alex Gray

0

1

0

Two murders, twenty years apart. Time for revenge . . .
When the body of a red-haired young man is washed up on the shore of the beautiful Isle of Mull, Detective Superintendent Lorimer’s tranquil holiday away from the gritty streets of Glasgow is rudely interrupted. The body has been bound with twine in a ghoulishly unnatural position that strongly reminds Lorimer of another murder: a twenty-year-old Glasgow case that he failed to solve as a fledgling detective constable and which has haunted him ever since.
As a local cop takes charge of the island murder investigation, Lorimer tries to avoid stepping on her toes. But as the similarities between the young man’s death and the cold case grow more obvious, Lorimer realizes that there could be a serial killer on the loose after all these years. As the action switches dramatically between the Mull murder and the Glasgow cold case twenty years earlier, Lorimer tries desperately to catch a cold-hearted killer. Has someone gotten away with murder for decades?

Without Due Process - A JP...

J. A. Jance

0

2

0

Top ten New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance brings us another unforgettable mystery featuring Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont, who is fighting to save a frightened child from a brutal murderer.
What kind of monster would break into a man′s home at night, then slaughter him and his family? The fact that the dead man was a model cop who was loved and respected by all only intensifies the horror. But the killer missed someone: a five-year-old boy who was hiding in the closet. Now word is being leaked out that the victim was "dirty." But Seattle P.D. Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont isn′t about to let anyone drag a murdered friend′s reputation through the muck. And he′ll put his own life on the firing line on the gang-ruled streets to save a terrified child who knows too much to live.

The Art Teacher: Shocking...

Paul Read

0

1

0

'A fast-paced and gritty read.' --The Daily Mail
'An impressive feat' --Publishers Weekly
'This is a superb debut... gritty, disturbing and pacy. It opens with thrilling intensity and never lets up.' --Alex Lake, author of After Anna
Patrick Owen managed seven years at Highfields Secondary School without punching a pupil in the face.
Unknowingly drawn into a war against his own pupils, Patrick's patience finally snaps as he finds himself the number one target with the boy the school just can't seem to expel.
When one of his Art students needs his help, she unwittingly pulls Patrick further into the line of fire, altering their lives forever.
With the media circling and rumours of his involvement reaching new highs, Patrick must escape the world he lives in, or face the consequences.
A gritty, harrowing page-turner. Perfect for fans of Linwood Barclay and Peter James

24symbols is a digital reading service without limits. In exchange for a small monthly fee you can download and read all of the books offered in our catalogue on any device (mobile, tablet, e-reader with web navigator or PC). Our catalogue includes more than 1 million books in several languages. This subscription can be terminated at any time in the section "Subscription".